Long Beach City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday, Aug. 7, to place four of five proposed charter amendments on the city’s November ballot.

The only proposed amendment that was not approved would have consolidated the water and gas departments into a newly named Utilities Commission.

Council members held off on an election for that item at those commissions’ request. Mayor Robert Garcia clarified that City Council will continue to discuss that proposal, which may find its way onto the ballot in 2020.

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The four charter amendments that voters will decide in November would:

Create a citizen’s redistricting commission to redraw council boundaries every 10 years

Establish an ethics commission

Abolish a loophole that allowed council members to be elected for unlimited terms as write-in candidates, and create a three-term limit

Allow the city auditor to perform reviews of all Long Beach boards, commissions, departments and offices

Residents flooded the mid-afternoon meeting largely to express concerns about the proposals, although a small minority of those who spoke thanked City Council for their work on the proposed amendments.

The item that drew the most ire was the proposal regarding term limits, with some people handing out signs that said, “2 term limits is enough.”

Critics, including former City Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, said the existing law was approved by voters for a reason.

Long Beach currently allows candidates to appear on the ballot for two terms. They can continue to run for terms after that point, but only as write-ins.

“If you do a good job, then your people will re-elect you” as a write-in, Gabelich said. “There is no loophole. If you do a good job, I want you to be there for three or four or five terms, but it shouldn’t just be automatic.”

She said the barrier to write-in campaigns was high enough to prevent incumbents from having too much of an edge.

Robert Fox, another resident who spoke on the item, said that if the proposed amendment were challenged, he believed the state would likely support a write-in candidacy despite the “closed loophole.”

Commenters spoke about the other items, as well. Some of the sentiments expressed were that City Council would have too much control over the redistricting and ethics commissions and render them moot, and that the city auditor should have “immediate” access to records, rather than just “timely” access, as the proposal language had been changed to state.

Members of the Cambodian community were in the minority of speakers who said they supported one of the measures. Specifically, they said City Council and Garcia had worked with them on the language for the redistricting item, and they were hopeful its current iteration would give them more political power.

“I shared similar anger” to many of the people in the room, said Laura Som, one of the Cambodian speakers.

She said the first draft of the redistricting item would have excluded participation from the Cambodian community. But since then, she said, “and up until now, the city of Long Beach has given us the opportunity to work with them.”

She said the current proposal is one that she and the rest of her community can support.

As for City Council itself, members emphasized their “yes” vote was simply to allow Long Beach voters to decide how they feel about these measures.

Councilwoman Suzie Price said she was on the fence about the term limits item, as she credited her own political participation to the fact that she did not have to face an incumbent.

“I remain conflicted about it,” she said. But “I’m going to be voting tonight to move forward on all of (the proposals) because I do think this is something citizens should have the opportunity to weigh in on.”

For Garcia’s part, he said he appreciated all of the staff and community work that went into these suggestions. At this point, he said, “the people will decide on these items.”

Hayley Munguia covers Long Beach City Hall for the Southern California News Group. She previously worked as a data reporter for FiveThirtyEight and has written for The Week, the Jerusalem Post and the Austin American-Statesman, among other publications. She's originally from Austin, graduated from NYU and will pet a dog any chance she gets.